This caught my eye a few days ago: "Lamborghini Veneno Roadster: No restraints. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Italian automaker unwraps the 221-mph Veneno Roadster prototype racer." At $4.5 million you'd better hurry to place your order - they're only making nine of them.
I only read the article (Exhaust Notes - Making sense of your automotive world) because I have a husband whose interests run to fast cars and Formula 1 Racing. The article mentioned that the car is named after a fighting bull that gored someone to death in 1914. Well, that piqued my history buff interest and sent me searching for more information about Lamborghini's.
Imagine my surprise to find that one of the world's fastest, most expensive car companies began as the manufacturer of tractors! After WWII, Ferruccio Lamborghini went into the business of building tractors from surplus military hardware. His enterprise was so successful it enabled him to pursue his interest in cars. The tractor pictured is a 1951 Lamborghini 22PS.
The Lamborghini fighting bull emblem came about because of Ferruccio's visit to a ranch near Seville where the Miura breed was being raised. Many of his cars were named for bull breeds or famous bulls from the bull fighting rings, including Diablo, Islero, Miura, Urraco and the Murciélago (a legendary bull whose life was spared by the matador in 1879).
An up close and personal Lamborghini experience for us occurred ten years ago during a trip to the West Coast. We were just coming into Salt Lake City when this black sports car passed us. Bud's reaction was, "Did you see that!?" My response was like, "ho hum, some kind of sports car". "That's a Lamborghini!" he countered. He didn't say so, but I recognized a stellar moment had just taken place.
I grabbed my ever-present camera and told him to catch back up to it so I could take a picture. By then another vehicle was blocking my line of sight, but when that driver realized what we were trying to do, he graciously slowed down and let us into his lane so we could get close enough for this shot.
There were many, many highlights during that trip, but this had to be one of Bud's favorites. I'm not sure, but I think this was a Murciélago. It wasn't long before it was completely out of our sight.
Bud may dream of one day owning a Lamborghini but that's only going to happen if he wins the lottery - even older used ones cost in the $150,000 range. Maybe we could find a used Lamborghini tractor we could afford.
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